2013 Las Vegas Regional

[James3245]

After 4 years of FRC a first post from Team 3245:

Thanks to all who worked to make the Las Vegas Regional a great event! I know that Team 987, and others, provided many volunteers who put in immense amount of work to organize, set-up, run and breakdown the event. Even the packaged hotel option worked out great for us...we really appreciate all the attention to detail from event organizers.

As a newer team we learned a lot but struggled in our first two seasons as we had ambitious goals but limited experience from which to draw. Last year we reached out to Team 1538 the Holy Cows and they helped us greatly in answering our technical and program development questions. This season we also sought the guidance of Team 987. They generously hosted us at their shop as we tackled pneumatics and a two-speed drivetrain for the first time. I highly recommend that younger teams identify veteran teams they respect and seek guidance. In our experience we have received energetic, friendly and invaluable support with the two veteran teams that have mentored us.

We were especially excited going into the Las Vegas event seeing many powerhouse programs signed up. We saw it as an opportunity to test ourselves and to learn from the best. And we hoped that the top teams would hammer on each other enough that somehow we would sneak up in the seedings with our modest, simple design. Just before qualifications we solved the sliding-frisbee-stack-jammed-shooter problem that plagued us at the Utah Regional. That allowed us to play steady enough over the weekend to take advantage of a favorable schedule of match-ups. When we had problems, others against us also had issues plus our partners saved us, when we had to be good our systems worked, and it helped that in the quals we never had to go up against 987 or 1717, yet we benefited from being allied with them for a couple of matches.

Why did we pick 1717 given that 987 had been so generous to us this season as a mentoring team, and they picked us last year in LV and carried us to the 2012 LV banner? We were in awe of the robots fielded by both 987 and 1717 and knew that our chances with either were great. It came down to wanting to learn from working with a superb program, 1717, that we have looked up to from a distance but not shared a regional with. Also there was a tiny sense of "little brother/big brother" opportunity - to test ourselves against 987, the awesome team we have learned so much from. In the end we were proud to play a role as 987 and 1717 put on an exhibition of incredible play against each other in the eliminations. 1717 were gracious partners as we worked together on pick-list and game strategy and we learned a lot in working with their seasoned crew. And we enjoyed winning with 4276 - a great group of students and mentors to work with. We also had great fun playing against our friends at Team Plasma (who were shooting well and hanging for 30) - the team that chose us last year at Utah. The match video of elims reveals the outstanding defense 597 played - including against us - they earned our respect, that's for sure.

All in all, great fun to play with and against, and learn from, top programs in a very well-run regional. Thanks to all who made it possible!